Hot and cold therapies have been used for many years to treat physiological maladies. Ice application, one of the more traditional cold therapy methods, has the advantage of minimal cost and the ready availability of ice. However, traditional ice application methods are not perfect, as indicated by many patient complaints about leaky ice bags and the inconvenience of refilling the ice bag as the ice melts. Furthermore, traditional ice application methods are not very precise in applying a uniform temperature throughout the injured area. Likewise, the application temperature is not easily regulated.
Various mechanical cold and hot therapy systems have been developed to surmount some of the problems associated with the more traditional therapeutic techniques. However, not all of these mechanical fluid therapy systems provide constant temperature regulation which may be deleterious to patient recovery. Additionally, current temperature sensors used in therapy systems have been susceptible to the presence of a liquid, resulting in operational fluctuations, unrelated to temperature. These fluctuations make it impossible to control the system temperature precisely.
There is a need for an improved fluid therapy system that provides constant temperature regulation in hot and cold therapy applications.